4 GoTo
Indonesia’s ride-hailing startup Gojek and e-commerce giant Tokopedia merged this year, consummating a longstanding partnership in Indonesia’s biggest business deal in history. The combined firm now accounts for 2 percent of Indonesia GDP, with 100 million active users, including drivers, consumers, and merchants.
In preparation for a domestic IPO in 2022, GoTo raised $1.3 billion in November, a round led by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. One of the biggest attractions for investors is GoTo’s super-app, GoPay, which places payments at the heart of the most important company at the heart of Indonesia’s digitalization. Look for it to use its proceeds to make its first forays overseas in the coming year.
5 Grab
Grab completed a rocky but historic IPO on December 2, becoming Southeast Asia’s biggest listing on Nasdaq via a merger with blank-check listco Altimeter Capital. The deal debuted at $13.05 per share, valuing Grab at $40 billion. Since then it’s been chewed up by the markets, with the stock at $7.12 as of December 13.
Its market cap has tumbled to $26 billion, a massive collapse in such a short timeframe. Although its executives say the company is best positioned to take advantage of Southeast Asia’s increasing internet economy, they face many competitors and have yet to figure out how to make their various fintech arms clear success stories.
Even so, it’s notable that all of the SPAC investors have kept their shares (often not the case with SPACs). Grab founder Anthony Tan has used the structure to maintain de facto control of the company. Most of all, the deal was completed, putting Southeast Asia tech on the global map. Investors are worried Grab will just be another Uber (still trading underwater two years post-IPO), but Uber never had UberPay. Grab’s IPO is hardly a qualified success but it will nonetheless show what the region is capable of achieving,
6 MetaKovan
Indian cryptonaire Vignesh Sundaresan has done more than anyone to create this year’s hype around non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The Singapore-based entrepreneur owns a number of crypto-related ventures, including Metapurse, which invests in NFTs. It was Sundaresan who, under the moniker MetaKovan, forwarded the winning bid of $69 million for digital artist Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days”, auctioned by Christie’s.
Crypto enthusiasts didn’t seem to mind that the man behind this crazy number was also pushing a portfolio of NFTs. He sparked a craze that continues to unfold. The jury is out on whether NFTs really offer any value, but they are now being touted as key to enabling crypto-based commerce in gaming and other “metaverse” or Web3 ecosystems. MetaKovan made his mark.
